Lucid's Virtu MVP Has No Love for SLI and CrossFire Users on Intel Z77 Platform

Over the last couple weeks, I've been neck deep in heavy Intel Z77 motherboard testing. I've been scrutinizing every last feature, and weighing each board's performance potential. One of the Intel Z77 platform features I've been testing is Lucid's Virtu MVP which could be the best Intel processor supporting feature in the last five years because it allows you to enhance not only your GPUs performance, but it also makes your games look better to0. But there's a small issue: It disables Intel's own QuickSync feature in certain circumstances.

LUCID Virtu In a Nutshell

Lucid Virtu first launched on Z68 motherboards in support of Intel Sandy Bridge processors which featured Intel Quick Sync (IQS). IQS uses the CPU's integrated graphics processor (IGP) to encode audio and video very quickly through specially supported software titles. This alone was enough to make media users upgrade from P67 motherboards.

Today's new Lucid Virtu MVP has a very similar mission. Teaming up the new Intel Ivy Bridge CPU integrated HD4000 graphics processor and a discreet single GPU video card will give you better frame rates similar to what AMD has provided in their Hybrid CrossFire, but without having to use specific GPUs. Along with the Virtual Vsync technology, the technology smooths over vertical Sync tearing too, making your games look better. Not only can you can also still encode at the "speed of cache" while gaining much needed frames, but you can also continue to FRAG at a reasonable frame rate. In fact, average frames are about a 10 fps gain in DirectX11 games and about 20 fps gain in many DirectX9 and DirectX10 games.

While 90% of the single GPU users on the market will enjoy this technology without issue, enthusiasts and professional users with dual GPUs will not be unable to use Lucid Virtu and Lucid Virtu MVP as they are not compatible. Even disabling one of the GPUs would not allow the technology to work.

Any Fixes In Sight?

We recently talked with Lucid to see if there were any plans to update Lucid Virtu MVP since dual GPU consumers also buy Intel Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge processors for the IGP features with Intel Quick Sync being among them. We pointed out that not all users can afford expensive software that is capable of utilizing the power of multiple GPUs. Users could also feel a little like they're being punished and/or left out simply for choosing to use two discrete GPUs in their system. Granted, we don't need MVP support but why disable Intel Quick Sync?

Lucid confirmed that they had no immediate plans to update Virtu MVP due to the small percentage of dual GPU users and more importantly, because motherboard manufacturers aren't interested in the cost of licensing that new feature update. However, future Virtu MVP software will provide all users with a new level of customization that supports Intel Quick Sync and its performance benefits. Unfortunately, we probably won't see this feature update till the next processor refresh from Intel in about a year or so.

The bottom line here is that not having access to key CPU features seems like value lost.

About The Author

As our Senior PC Hardware Editor, Eric has been working with tech since before serving in the military where he really got to play with some very cool hardware. As for his prowess on the virtual battlefield, don't let the teddy bear exterior fool you. He can frag and pwn with the best in just about any first person shooter. You may run in to him at LANs, tech shows, and gaming shows, so do say hello.

It's a shame "Lucid’s Virtu MVP" is a total waste for multi-GPU users. I understand that the market is small, but multi-GPU users also tend to upgrade nearly every 1 to 2 generations (I upgraded motherboard twice last generation). This technology, if it actually worked for more than one GPU, in theory would have the potential to benefit multi-GPU users the most. This is because we are thesubgroup of users that 1) even know what microstutter is, 2) would highly desire a way to reduce it's effects, and 3) are actually whiling to shell out the money.

I'll be sticking to my i7 980 on my x58 for my tri-sli GTX 670's.

bluemoon20

It all comes down to money. Motherboard manufacturer's aren't willing to license out the development for multi-GPU setups. However, I think Lucid is loosing an opportunity to provide an "upgrade" feature directly to the computer enthusiasts. Perhaps, Lucid could charge an afforadable software solution to the Lucid MVP platform that fixes the features needed to benefit the mulit GPU crowd. It would have to be $200 dollars less and nowhere near the price differrence for the enthusiast to use that money towards a better hardware GPU refresh. The performance is generally for extending a single card's performance but so much more could be obtainable if the software included multi-GPU setups and not gimped features for those who have the money.

TheKeyboardDemon

I upgraded to an Ivy Bridge platform recently, I was really hoping to enjoy the VirtuMVP features as they had been discussed as a big benefit, I've just spent my evening trying to test it out and when I was having issues I found this. Explains my issues, but now is there any way we can persuade Lucid to reconsider? My HD6990 would love a VirtuMVP friend.

relax relax

I have yet to try out Virtu MVP, would, if it had support for crossfirex.

arfazero

lucid stop being fkin lazy if you gonna do it do it right or some one else is gonna program it and you'll lose out on all that monie you wish you had

Maikel

i might have a thing to force this further.. as the dutch asus site says: "combineert perfect de prestaties van aparte videokaarten met een snel rekenende iGPU", wich translates into: perfectly combines the performance of seperate videocardS (kaartEN) with a fast calculating iGPU...

and yes i have the board, loved it with my single HD7870, enabled MVP, loved it more.. so then i got another HD7870, and lost my mvp (and felt like the tiny guy in the shower in the prison themed movie..) ... making the gains not worth the money at all..